Pages

Posts

Back in the day, people were so squicked out by disability
that governments felt compelled to make ordinances preventing citizens who had
disabilities from being in public places. They were called "ugly
laws," not referring to the laws themselves, but to the state of
appearance which they were intended to curtail: "No person who is diseased, maimed, mutilated or in
any way deformed so as to be an unsightly or disgusting object or improper
person to be allowed in or on the public ways or other public places in this
city, or shall therein or thereon expose himself to public view, under a
penalty of not less than one dollar nor more than fifty dollars for each
offense."- Chicago Municipal Code, sec.
36034, repealed 1974 I've written about the freak label before and at that time,
it was in connection to a story about how a BBC
children's show host with a disability prompted a number of formal complaints
from the public. Today's post is a bit different. It'…

Photo by David GovoniSometimes, RA doesn’t just take. Sometimes, RA gives. When I still lived with my parents, I was in charge of pies.
I'd found the perfect recipe for the crust and loved experimenting with
different fillings. Our kitchen wasn't very wheelchair accessible, so my mother
would place the ingredients and tools on the dining room table and I'd get to
work. I love the feel of flour between my fingers — the cool softness of it,
the way it packs into smooth shapes that fall apart with the slightest touch.
After adding slices of butter, I'd mix it into the flour with a pastry cutter
until it was a pile of pea-sized pellets and then get my hands in the bowl to
smush them together into a ball of dough. You know the rest: rolling the dough
into a large circle, carefully adding it to the pie pan, fluting the edges and
adding the filling. Shortly thereafter, the delicious smell of baking pie would
waft through the house. I grew up in a baking household. For as long a…

Last Friday, I went to a Toronto
concert hall to hear David Sedaris read from his new book Let's Explore
Diabetes with Owls — a book that apparently has nothing to do with diabetes,
although owls do make a rather hilarious appearance. I had no idea what to
expect. In fact, on some level I confused David Sedaris with Dan Savage – they
are funny gay men who write and have the same initials. Natural mistake. A-hem. I have a
couple of books written by the former, but haven't read them yet. That's going
to change very soon. David Sedaris is my new favorite writer. When he read the essay
linked to above, I discovered that in one respect, I'm very much like this very
funny man. Because I spent a significant part of the past week trying to find
out how to contact him so I can ask how much the pygmy cost. It's wrong, I know
it is, but I still need to know. How is David Sedaris not on Twitter? Anyway! This post is not about that. This post is about
something else entirely. Goi…

This week on HealthCentral, I wrote about some very interesting studies of what happens in the brain when you're in pain:

"Have you ever felt that your doctor underestimated your pain? Have
you ever felt that others didn't believe you have pain? Have you ever
wished you could prove that you're in pain? An exciting new development
has wide-ranging implications for the assessment and treatment of pain.

Studies of Pain Using fMRI Researchers are using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to
study what happens in the brain when people experience pain. Functional
MRIs provide a sort of 3-D movie of the brain as it response to pain."

When Marianna and I talked about me stopping by her blog A Rheumful of Tips, she suggested doing something a bit different. We batted some ideas back and forth and settled on a video. Of me.

There's a reason I'm a photographer, not a model. Well, aside from not having the ability to subsist on lettuce leaves and water. I'm not comfortable in front of the camera, but thanks to Marianna, I got to challenge myself and learn lots in the process.

Hop on over to A Rheumful of Tips to watch the results. Also: enter to win a copy of Your Life with Rheumatoid Arthritis in the giveaway!

I am beyond thrilled to tell you that I've joined CreakyJoints as a regular blogger. They're a terrific organization and do important work for the inflammatory arthritis community - I've been a faithful reader of their posts for years and am pretty chuffed to be part of the group now.

My first post for them is about the origin of my perspective on living well with chronic illness. More specifically, two moments from my past that have shaped who I am and how I think about living with RA. The sources of inspiration: my parents and a psychic:

"I had a great time writing a guest post for CreakyJoints a
couple of weeks ago and was thrilled when they asked if I wanted to become part
of the team. After years of reading the great posts published on the site, of course I wanted to be part of the
team! My little corner will be called Lene’s Seated View. Like the title
suggests, my thoughts on living well with a chronic illness will occasionally
be of a slightly philosophical ben…

You may have noticed I've been a bit scattershot in my approach to posting lately, but I have a good reason. Several good reasons. There's been a rather a lot of work, a lot of book promotion and just recently we dove into making the paperback.

This means reading the damn book again. Not that I don't like my book — I am quite proud of my baby and when caught unawares will admit to thinking it's pretty good. The reason I am saying bad words in connection to the book is that I have read the damn thing (oops, there it was again) at least nine times since November and thought I wouldn't have to do it again until putting together the second edition a couple of years from now.

Nope. I wanted a paperback. Which is a good idea, because a lot of people have told me they want a "book book," something they can hold in their hands, lend to their friends and family and so on. And to be honest, I want a book book, as well. I'm thrilled to see Your Life with Rheumatoi…